dann russo: Blog

so I had this idea. I think it's a really cool idea and may have a future.
Every Thursday I want to play a short(er) show that has a unifying theme.
Problem: I need to find a theme.
Conveniently, yesterday was Edgar Allan Poe's birthday (a tidbit of knowledge I got not from google or wikipedia, but from the fantastic and talented brain of the fantastic and talented www.erindionne.com ).

Problem 2: I need to find songs about Mr. Poe.
I did a little research, found that Mr. Poe was born in Boston, lived in a bunch of places around the East Coast, ending up dying in Baltimore, MD.
"Self," (cause that's what I call myself) "Baltimore!" I said to myself. "Raining in Baltimore! Counting Crows! Hey - Crows are like Ravens, like the poem The Raven! And I can even do a Black Crowes song or two - I LOVE them. And Tori Amos was born in Baltimore too! And so was Adam Duritz? I TOTALLY need to do a bunch of Counting Crows songs..." And on and on it went (of course, when I talk to [...]

I'm kinda nervous.

I get nervous a lot before playing. I get a little shaky, my stomach retches, my eyes glaze over. Kind of like that dream where you're on stage naked in front of a lot people and you have forgotten your lines to whatever version of Hamlet you are in, and your third AND 8th grade English teachers are sitting next to your parents in the first row. No, not KIND of like that. EXACTLY like that.
Playing original music is really fun. And really hard. (not to diminish the talents needed to play covers, but there is less internal strife and anxiety playing songs people know already) There is the "the is my favorite line ever in a song I hope I don't mumble/mess it up/forget it" issue. There is the "this song is exceedingly personal and I hope that people don't hate it" issue. There is the "omg there she is and I really hope she knows/doesn't know this song is about her" issue (depending on the song of course). There is "how many was that? 3? 4? do I want another beer? can I [...]

I've had an Apostrophe! Epiphany!
 
One of my favorite movies of all time is Hook, the story of the grown-up Peter Pan visiting Neverland and having to remember how to have fun. I don't think I've ever had to "remember" how to have fun, but I've definitely had to renew the meaning. 
 
Having fun today was doing two puzzles of firetrucks and making an extra pot of coffee. and looking around to see the disaster double/triple/quadruple Christmas has had on our living room. toys, trains and stuffed animals are strewn all over the place. and crayons. and markers. I even wrote a song about it. wanna hear it? here it goes.
 
http://soundcloud.com/dannrusso/stripsofpaper 

So it occurs to me that there is a big game today. And this big game celebrates, with beer and food and more beer, the wonders of working together, no man for themselves, putting your ego in check and making sure you all do your job for everyone on your team to succeed. And the two teams playing today? One has no OwnER. It is owned by the fans, the citizenry, the true die-hards dedicated to making the team great, not making more money. The other team? One of the few success stories coming out of a once-super-important town, with the blueest collars around, the team NAMED after the people who made the town great. It also occurs to me that this game is the biggest thing happening in the United States of America today. The America which supposedly idolizes capitalism, has banks that are too-big-to-fail whilst people can't pay their mortgage TO those banks because capitalism said their jobs would be better somewhere else. The America which announces the gambling profits of a few people every [...]

so, its Feb 1st, my brother's 32nd birthday.it's (yet another) snow day - our 4th in the past 2 weeks.it's also the first day of RPM 2011. AND FAWM. They are 28-day music writing "challenges." I hesitate to call them contests because although there is a bit of friendly competition the ultimate reward is the music itself. That's an interesting phrase "the music itself." After 20 years + of writing and performing music (I was 16 when I wrote "Believe" which I still play at shows now), some good, some terrible, some pandering, some way too far out there, some great songs done poorly, some sounding much better in my head than what comes out, some coming out better than perfect, the question arises: why DO I do this? I mean, I'll be 35 this year, and I know that Pat Moynahan from Train didn't get his "break" til about this time but I always was hoping to follow the Bruce Springsteen on-the-cover-of-Time-and-Newsweek-at-26 trail. What I have now is the music itself.I love playing. I [...]